How to Train your Dragon - Beasts Bounty
by MyName'sTris
Summary: Astrid and Hiccup seem to be having some problems. When Astrid goes missing Hiccup abandons the Hooligan tribe to find her. But where is she? Who took her there? And, why? There is a truth she must know, a truth Hiccup must know, before Astrid lives her life, a lie. Sorry...im awful at writing summaries! my first fanfic! exiting! hope you enjoy reading as much i did writing!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's****note: **Sorry to be such a pain! But i felt as though my chapters were a bit too short! i have put some chapters together so i think they story might make more sense now and...yeah the chapters will be slightly longer! 132 viewers! WOW! That is amazing! I am so grateful for all of the views and i would really appreciate it if you could leave a review on future chapters and what you think should, or might happen next! Again I am so sorry for the inconvenience I have caused by editing my story so much!

So, basically, Astrid and Hiccup are...having some trouble coping with the situation at hand! This chapter isn't my best! But it is my first story on so please don't leave any rude or mean comments! Thank you so much for reading this and I promise to update regularly and finish fanfics before beginning new ones!

_**Chapter 1 (hiccup)**_

The boat ride is taking forever. My arms ache from rowing the oars and I can see that everyone else is having similar thoughts. "Wait" I hear a voice from the back of the boat say. It's Astrid. She gets up and walks to the front of our special made "Viking long-boat" for the journey. She says "that's it, that's Beasts Bounty". Every one stops rowing and gets up with excitement. I decide to join in. But I get caught in the blur of black, red, blue and green clothes that rush past me. I seem to get pushed to the back without even realising. Luckily, being 18 I am not the runt of our village anymore.

I pear over the shoulders of the Viking In front of me and I see an island, on it, looks like a big hill that's been dumped in the water, but as we come closer I see that it's not a hill at all, it's a cave, a dragons, cave.

We never rode our dragons here because whatever is in that cave, would know we were coming. So instead, we have had to make a three-week journey on boat. It would have taken us a lot longer if Astrid had not known how to get here. To be honest, I'm not sure how she knows.

Fishlegs, Astrid, and I, are the last to get off of the boat. I help Astrid down since she is a considerable amount shorter than everyone else here, plus, we are going out now, so I thought it seemed fitting.

Once Fishlegs is off, we start walking down a rocky, thin pathway, it's strange because it's almost as if it was specially made for humans such as us, to walk down. To our death? I don't know.

I glance at Astrid as she walks beside me down the rocky path. She looks troubled, almost sad, scared maybe. I have never seen Astrid scared, or troubled, or, maybe she is just really good at hiding it. She is breathing heavily, I can tell there is definitely something wrong. So as any good person would, I ask. "Astrid? Are, are you…okay?" she looks at me, her expression staying the same. She looks at me for a few seconds, and looks back down. "I, I'm, fine" she says, her voice is shaky, unstable. So I venture another question "Are you sure? Because you don't look, or sound fine?" She sighs. "I just, know something". I don't mean to, but I give her a questioned look, not meaning to hurt her, but I can see it in her face. "What?" is all I can seem to get out of my mouth. I feel awful as soon as I say it, she is clearly distraught, and I am definitely not helping her, I should be comforting her not questioning her. She just shakes her head and takes a deep breath as a reply. I look back down at my feet, and shake my own head. What I want to know is: why can't she answer? What is she hiding from me? Is she hiding something from everyone here? Is she trying to hide something from herself?

I open my mouth to say something, even though I'm not sure what that would be. But I am stopped by a fellow Viking shouting. It's my dad. He is the chief, of Berk. I am still standing with Astrid and Fishlegs at the near back of the crowd of Vikings. Most of us have stubborn looks, or even some angry looks on their faces. But not Astrid, she looks as troubled, if not more, than before. And not me, I am troubled and curious and suspicious, of what is going on in that girl's mind.

When we finally reach the mouth of the cave, my dad calls Astrid and myself over to him. As we walk through the crowd of Vikings, I begin to see Astrid's eyes almost welling up. I have never seen Astrid cry. I don't think many people have.

My dad splits us up in to groups, he suggests that Astrid and I go as a group. So we follow his orders. I can't take this any longer… I need to know what's going on with her.

Astrid and I are in the cave, nothing suspicious so far, just lots of rocks hanging from the ceiling and sometimes it becomes a bit like a maze, with dead ends. We have been walking in silence. It must have been at least a half hour. So I say "if you won't tell me what's going on with you… how I can trust that you are on our side?" this gets her attention. She stops with a jolt, I am now 2 or 3 feet in front of her. She glares at me as if looks could kill. I glare back. "What are you trying to say, Hiccup?" she asks. Her voice even more shaking, as if she is really fighting back tears of some sort. But no, I can't feel sorry for her, I won't. "I'm saying…if you have some information, and you're not telling me…how do I know, It's not information on who – or what – ever lives on this damn island!" I feel as if I am shouting now. I think Astrid does too. I can see it in her eyes. Her sky blue eyes that mesmerised me ever since we first rode on toothless together. I miss toothless. He is on Berk with Stormfly and Hookfang… and all the other dragons.

Astrid is still staring at me, usually if I start shouting or I get mad for some un apparent reason, she punches me in the stomach or something. But this time, Astrid isn't being Astrid…

"Well?" I say. Making sure my voice is softer, deeper, this time. "Well…" she says. Nods. Turns around. Wipes her cheek with the palm of her hand. And walks in the other direction, out of the cave. I've really done it this time.

"Astrid!" I call after her.

I don't know what I was expecting. For her to call back? For her to come back into the cave saying "Sorry, I couldn't hear you, what was that?"

I feel as though I should just leave her alone and I should just go through the rest of the cave, making sure there are no, Hideous Zipplebacks or…Any Screaming deaths around.

But…just to be safe, I decide it's a better idea to slump onto a rock and think about how depressing my life is.

I sit on the rock inside the cave for what feels like ages. Probably only an hour or so. When I hear the horn signalling that it's time to return to the meeting place, I put my head in my hands, shake it all out and fight the urge to shrivel up and die.

I walk back along the pathway, with my hands in my pockets, my head down. I scuff my boots on the ground as I walk, but somehow it only takes me twenty minutes to get back to the meeting place.

I hope to the Gods Astrid is there.

I look around heads, over shoulders and under branches for Astrid. Nowhere to be seen.

I walk over to my dad as casually as possible, clear my throat, and say "hey dad, um you wouldn't happen to know where a girl with braided, golden hair and blue eyes went, would you?" he laughs. "Good one son, seriously though. Where is Astrid? I didn't see you walking back with her? Everything okay?" I shudder. Ohh no… where is she… oh man this is all my fault. Yikes. What am I going to tell my dad? I take a deep breath, swallow and say "Um, well, I was actually being serious dad. I don't know where she is…" I see my father's face turn from a frown, to a scowl. He's mad, not with Astrid, with me, for losing her. "Do you mean to tell me, you have lost, my future daughter in law?" he stands up a little straighter. He is very protective over Astrid. I don't know why. It's not like she can't handle herself or something. "Um, well, um, kind of?" he just stares down at me. I look at my shoes and feel him grabbing my arm, dragging me somewhere. I know where though. I don't even need to wonder.

We wander around the place for hours looking for her. The rest of the Vikings are looking for Astrid elsewhere. When we are alone, he stops, looks me in the eye, and says "Hiccup, I want you to know, that it's not your fault…entirely…"

"well, it's a start…" I reply. Rolling my eyes.

"Stoick!" we hear an unidentifiable voice from not too far away. My dad's eyes narrow, as if he is hunting for prey. We run toward the yelps and screeches and shouts. When we get there, all hell breaks loose. "Stoick! / Chief something's wrong! / Ahhhhhh!/ We found her! /stoick look at this!"

My dad looks at me, worried. I shake my head and we run towards the sound of chaos.

"what in the name of Oden is going on?!" my father yells as the Vikings all back away, revealing giant scratch marks on the ground, presumably a dragons work.

Then, a short, middle aged lady – Gothi – steps forward. She has something in her hands. Its Astrid's axe.

If Astrid is weapon less against say, a dragon…she has, no chance… I hate to even think it…but it's true, and it was me. I did that. I made her mad.

A man steps forward next. He puts his hand on my shoulder, gives me and my dad a sympathizing look, and hands me something. It's the satchel Astrid was carrying over her shoulder with a map, some charcoal, and a blue/purple polished geode with red/orange fragments embedded in it.

The geode reminds me of her. Her eyes so dark that they could be mistaken for purple in a certain light. Her personality so, feisty like the red embodiments, not many of them, but they are so pure that they stand out from the rest. But they do not take away from the beauty of the blue, calm, positive, and amazing.

My dad looks down, as if grieving her. And says "by the look of this situation, my conclusion is, Astrid has been kidnapped. And we are going to get her back." The Vikings cheer and hug each other. My dad puts a hand firmly on my back and whispers "don't worry son, I'll do whatever it takes, to get her back to you." I almost start to cry myself. I can't bear this. I say "dad, can I talk to you? Alone?" he looks at me, as if he is really sad and nods ever so slightly.

He walks me to a nearby rock. A big one. We hide behind it while I tell him the whole story. Everything I said and likewise with Astrid. I also mentioned how it's all my fault. How I yelled and she couldn't even bear to look at me.

Once I have finished the story, my dad looks at me, and says "I'm sorry, son."

"dad?" I ask, just as my father is about to leave for the other Vikings.

"Yes son?"

"what, if, I, _can't_ find her? What happens then?"

"I will not let a single soul leave this island until she is found, Hiccup. I cant afford for you to loose her, for myself to loose her, and I don't wish to be the one who has to tell her uncle. They are the only family each other have left."

My eyes widen, and I smile a little.

"we shall leave at dawn" my father nods as he speaks, in agreement with him self.

I frown. "No"

He stops nodding, and looks me, right in the eye. "what?"

"im leaving now" I reply proudly.

I nod to him and turn on my heels. As I walk I pick up Astrids axe and satchel, I also make sure I have my blade hidden up my sleeve.

"you get back here boy! Do you know, how many dragons will be roming this island this time of night?"

He's right, it's dark now, and most of the dragons that live here will be feeding. But it's a risk im willing to take.

"oi! Stoick! Hiccup where are ye goin'?"gobber hobbles towards me and I have no option but to stop.

"I am going-" I'm cut off by my dads voice bellowing.

"he is going to his grave! That's where he is goin'!"

Gobber rolls his eyes. "now Hiccup, we have talked about this. Eighteen is not a grave appropriate age! Maybe when you are older though-"

"gobber, shut yer gob" my father cuts in and gobber does as he is told.

I turn around once more "good night Gobber, Dad."

Gobber waves with his good arm "nighty night Hiccup! Dinnae forget to brush yer toothy pegs!"

I keep walking, sigh and shake my head.

When I reach the beginning of Blood Shed Forest, there is no light in the sky, not even the moon to guide my way.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 (Astrid)

I don't know what to think right now. It all happened so suddenly. One minute I was being yelled at by an angry Hiccup, the next I was outside wandering aimlessly. I don't remember much after that.

It was dark, and I saw a large figure appear in the sky. It looked like a dragon. The next thing I knew it swooped me up and I must have blacked out… I have no idea what happened after that. Then, I woke up, here. Tied to a chair in a dark room.

I don't usually admit to being scared. But now, I really am. I don't even know where I am, all I can see, for as far as I can see, is darkness.

I have made mistakes involving fighting with Hiccup in the past. The thing is, he is almost always right! I don't know how! But he is. I just don't know if he is right this time.

I gasp as I hear a door open. I am tied to a wooden chair in the middle of a room. A room full of one man, and one hundred dragons.

"Astrid Hofferson" the man says. He has beady eyes, like an eagles or a hawks. He is tall and skinny, wears all black, including a long fur cloak that hangs down his back. I recognise him immediately, but I don't know where from.

"What do you want?" I say through gritted teeth. He laughs. His laugh is almost like a mixture of a witches and a goblins, a combination, never welcome to dinner.

"What I want, my dear, is all the information you know of Ingrid and Magnus Hofferson." He did not just play that card.

"My parents?" I say, my voice trembling under fear and sorrow at the same time.

"Yes, Astrid, your parents." I take a deep breath, swallow and say "well, my mother and father were both taken by dragons when I was very young. Then I went to stay with my uncle." He pulls his eyebrows together. As if he knew nothing about my parents' names and where I was and how to find to find me. Like this is all a surprise to him. I smile a little, it's amusing to me, on how little he knows about me, yet he had to kidnap me.

"All of us here, on Beasts Bounty, thought you died along with your parents, or shortly after. We weren't sure which."

I twitch the corner of my mouth.

"Well, I'm here. Disappointed?" he steps closer to me, looks at the ground beneath him, looks at me, straight in the eye, and says.

"A little, you would have made this job a lot easier for me." I frown and look at the ground.

"What do you mean? This job? You mean you want to kill me?" he laughs.

"No, no, no. why would a self-respecting man such as myself wish to burden myself with the guilt of murdering an 18 year old innocent girl?" I grin a little and look at him.

"I don't know. You tell me." I say. He doesn't know what to say. So he says nothing except

"you better hope the rest of your island cares about you. Or you'll be here a long time." The sound of his voice makes me shiver, she words that come out of his mouth make me gag.

The last thing I did was fight with Hiccup, he won't want to come and get me.

And I am here, possibly will be forever, with this madman.

Who is he?

And how does he know my parents?

I stare at him for a while, unable to find the words to say. After a while he smirks, nods, and leaves, closing the door behind him.

There I am, left in a room, tied to a chair with the only light being that of a dragons flame.

I try to break free of the rope. But I can't. This would be a good time to have Hiccups blade, the one he can hide up his sleeve or in his boots.

It's been hours. I have almost given up hope. When I hear the door bang. It opens ever so slightly and all the hope I had, disappears. Its madman again. What does he want now?

"Still here are we? You must be ashamed of your tribe. Aren't you?" I bring my eyebrows together into a scowl.

"I don't doubt that they will come for me" every word is a lie.

"Oh, I see, and, how do you expect them to find you?"

"They will"

"I very much doubt that"

I am furious. I could kick him in the stomach and kill him. One: if I could get out of this stinking chair! And two: if I wouldn't be punished for murder.

"I thought you should know the truth Astrid"

His voice is deep, bitter.

"What?" I say. I am nervous to speak. In fear of him lashing out, or telling me something I don't want to hear.

"do you wish to know why you were brought here Astrid? Do you wish to know _who _brought you here?" he says. Staring me right in the eye. As if he expects me to cry or something. But I am far beyond crying. I am more at the point of screaming.

"yes." My voice is un stable. I'm worried I am crying, so I blink really hard, and no tears come out, thank the gods… man that would have been embarrassing…

"you were brought here to find out the truth" the madman seems cunning.

"the truth?" I say, beginning to doubt what people have told me.

"Poor child…" he sounds like he is planning something, like he is trying to break me to a point where I begin to beg. But I don't. I keep my eyes trained on him and say.

"what, happened, to my, parents?" saying each word, slowly and clearly.

"Astrid, my dear, deprived of mental orientation…you see, child, you are so caught up in the truth you seek, that you have not considered the truth you need…"

"I, I don't understand?" I say, soon after,

"Your parents were found dead, on this island. Am I right?" he is smiling now.

"To my knowledge, yes..." that's what I was so afraid to tell Hiccup, he would have made me stay because, well, of this…

He sighs, "well, at least they got one thing right."

I swallow, take a deep breath and say "what are you trying to tell me?-" I'm cut off by his laughter.

"Yes, Astrid, I am trying to tell you something very valuable to you."

I am crying now, I can feel the burning water rolling down my cheeks. My eyes getting redder by the second.

He walks around me, which is annoying because I can't see him due to the darkness and the chair I am strapped to.

"Do you know where the Deadly Nadder, originally, came from?" when he comes into my view, he is grinning, a creepy grin, the kind you have night terrors about, or the kind your parents tell you about when it's story time.

I think about it… I know this, I know everything there is to know about them. "Yes. Beasts Bount-" oh my gods… "Wait? Stormfly?"

A figure appears from the glowing flame of the dragons, I can recognise her immediately, I don't even need to think about it.

Stormfly lowers her head as she walks towards me.

"Free her" the creepy madman says and two men whom I did not notice before appear from the back of the room.

Once I am cut free I spring up and put my hand out to touch Stormfly, but she retreats. So do I, without even realising.

Stormflys eyes are as wide and desperate as mine, as Hiccups when I last saw him.

My eyes flit around the room. I knew my parents were killed by dragons, but I never knew they were killed by, my dragon, Stormfly. My best friend.

"Stormfly, I, I'm sure, you, you didn't mean it." I ease the words out, trying to make her understand.

Stormfly keeps her distance, but looks at me. I look at her.

"I'm not going to hurt you Stormfly, I just-"

I don't have much time to process everything because a door slams, and the door to the room I am trapped in opens. And through it, comes, Hiccup.

Stormfly quickly retreats to the back of the room, hidden by the darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 (Hiccup)

I freeze when I open the door to the first room I venture into.

I had been wandering around Beasts Bounty for a while, before I stumbled onto a huge building in the shape of a thimble, with windows spaciously placed all around it.

When I got into the building I had no idea where to look first. But I decided to go from top to bottom. And just as well I did, because now, I have found Astrid.

She is standing up, with one arm slightly stretched out, as if she was reaching for something, but thought better of it. She stares at me when I come into the room.

The room is dark with only – what looks like – three dragons flames giving reasonable vision.

There is a tall thin man standing a few feet in front of her, he looks creepy.

I look at the creepy guy and come to a conclusion. Running.

I skit past him and take Astrid's hand in mine. Her eyes are confused and sad and lonely all at the same time.

She tightens her grip of my hand and then pulls me into to hug her. I hesitate, but only for a moment.

"Hiccup…" she sighs. "I'm, I'm so sorry…"

I hug her tighter. "Me to…me to…"

We both seem to pull back at the same time, but still keeping our hands laced.

We run past the creepy man trying to get out of the building but we are stopped by one of his Hideous Zipplebacks', well at least I can check that one off the list.

"I am Valdomear NeedleTooth! And you will NEVER escape me!" the creepy man who we now know as Valdomear shouts as we are sprinting down the stairs.

"After them!" we hear him roar again.

We make it into the Blood Shed Forest just before we hear the angry roars and screams of his dragon soldiers.

But this is a different route to the one I took to get here. I don't actually know where we are…

We come to a wide river, it looks deep too. And the current is wild.

But we have no choice.

I let go of Astrid and stand on the edge of the bank. She gasps and yanks my arm back. "Hiccup what do you think you are doing?!"

"Astrid, we need to jump." I keep my eyes locked onto the river.

"Hiccup…please don't jump. You _will_ die! Hiccup! I don't want to go back home without you! And _I_ want to go back home!" she begs.

"Astrid, you can take your chances in here. Or die out there for certain."

The dragons are very close now. Even though we took a confusing route for even us to follow, they have found us. We can hear them screeching in the air above us. Circling around us.

Astrid holds my hand tighter. And we jump.

It all a blur at first. When I find my bearings, I find Astrid. The current isn't allowing us to get above the water.

Astrids hand is once again, laced with mine. We swim together, under the water for as long as we can.

And then, we stop.

Astrid is a few feet in front of me. She stops when I do_. But wait? I didn't tell myself to stop. And, why am I going down?_

I look down to see if something is dragging me by my metal foot. But I can't see, the water is too murky.

Astrid let's go of my hand and instead grabs me by my waist, trying to pull me back up, but she isn't strong enough.

She lets go once more and starts to swim down – to see what is at the bottom of the river. But I stop her, by holding onto her waist and her arm, she looks at me, terrified. I just shake my head.

Astrid's face goes from scared, to worried and sad and all the things no one deserves to be… then she shakes her head slowly, and swims back down anyway.

I feel something pushing me up. And then I am let go. I swim up to the surface as fast as my legs will take me. Then I realise. _Astrid's not here…_

I take a deep breath, try to control my hyperventilation, and I dive back down to the bottom of the river.

I see Astrid at the bottom, shifting around. When I come closer, I see her more clearly. And her arm is trapped under a big rock that whatever was dragging us down – probably a dragon – moved in its get away.

I don't know what to do! I kind of panic which obviously is _not_ helping.

Once I calm myself down, and realise how little time she has left, I swim down to her and kneel on the river bed beside the rock. It's really big and heavy, I sincerely hope it hasn't crushed any of Astrid's bones.

I am trying to lift it, drag it, anything! But it won't budge. Astrid takes one of my hands with her free one, and closes her eyes.

I shake my head and try even harder to lift the rock. Just as I begin to think I will never get her out, I hear a splash and I feel a stronger current above me. Then, all of a sudden, Astrid and I are being hauled out of the water by something. But what?

Our saviour lays us down on the ground at the other side of the river. Astrid and I cough and splutter, trying to catch our breaths. When I am reasonably calm, I gaze up at whoever saved Astrid and I.

Not a saviour, saviours…

Toothless stands directly above me with his big green eyes asking me if I'm alright.

"Oh my Gods! Toothless!" I try to stand up but I lose my balance. Of course Toothless steadies me.

"I missed you so much bud…how did you know we were here?"

Toothless stands up straighter and bobs his head to the side. I look over, and see Stormfly with Astrid. They are not hugging like Toothless and I would. Neither of them seems happy like they usually would.

I run to Astrid and put my hand on her back, kneeling down next to her, she is still sitting on the ground trying to catch her breath.

"Astrid…I could have lost you…"

She turns her head to me, and hugs me so tight I can hardly breathe. I hug her back.

"But, you didn't. They found us, before we got too lost."

She is still hyperventilating, so am I. But she wraps her arms around me even tighter, and kisses me on the cheek.

I still want to know why she never spoke to Stormfly first.

She pulls back, and turns to Stormfly, she begins to stand up, so do I, and I decide to help Astrid a little because of how hard I found it to keep my balance at first.

"Stormfly, please, I'm not mad at you. It was in the past. You had to! You would have died and it was your instinct! Please don't..don't…"

Stormfly begins to back away.

"No! Stormfly! You, you just saved my life okay, and you have, so many times! Do you think that because of something you did in the past, I'm gonna throw all that away?" she is crying now, she is walking towards Stormfly as she speaks and Stormfly is staying still for now.

When Astrid gets a certain distance from Stormfly – probably a foot and a half or so – she speaks softly, like she knows how Stormfly feels. "it's okay girl… Your fine." Stormfly grunts. Astrid half laughs half sighs "I'm fine too girl, we are all fine…" Astrid reaches her hand out and touches Stormflys nose, then Stormfly moves closer and they hug each other.

I don't bother to ask what it was all about, but it was nice, it was great to see them bond again.


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors note:** once again, thank you for all of the views! I have re-done this chapter over four times and im still not overly happy with it. But here you go, chapter four.

Chapter 4 (Astrid)

We have been walking a while now, maybe not, but that's what it feels like, three or four hours. Its dark now and I can see that even Stormfly and Toothless are tired.

"how's your arm?" Hiccup keeps his head down as we walk.

I don't reply.

"it must be painful" he says, he is right, I haven't said anything, but it has been throbbing from when I was trapped under the rock..

"it fine" I say, I know Hiccup hates it when I say I'm okay, but I just, don't want him to do something drastic that could lose time.

He sighs. "the last time you said you were fine, you got kidnapped…"

I sigh. "okay, you got me." I say, folding my arms, only for a couple of seconds because any movement send a shooting pain up my left arm – the one that was trapped under the rock. "you need to lie down Astrid." He stops walking. So I stop to.

"no, I don't. we need to get back to the Chief!" I state. But I don't think that Hiccups mind is going to change. "Astrid…look at your arm, you are so pale, I'm afraid you might drop down dead any minute…"

He is right, he usually is. I glance a look at my arm, its red around the edge of the cut. – must be about 8 inches.

"Hiccup, I, wont sleep, ill just stay awake worrying that, that Valdomear guy might attack the rest of the tribe! I want to go on!" I protest, I know its worthless though. Hiccup will convince me…

"Astrid! I, cant watch you go on anymore!" his eyes start to water in frustration. "please, Astrid, please, f...for me."

He is right, urgh I knew I would end up giving in to him. "Okay, okay. But, only for a couple of hours." I walk towards him. He nods. Then he hugs me, it sends a shot of pain right up my arm but that doesn't stop me from hugging him back.

We hear Stormfly growl and we pull back, we realise she was growling at Hiccup, protecting me and my arm probably. "woe, okay, Stormfly, I wont hurt her, promise" he laughs and slowly backs away. I laugh too.

We find a spot to sleep in eventually. I slump against a tree, my arm is aching and stinging and pounding all at the same time, while the muscles in my legs burn. Hiccup sits next to me, and Stormfly and Toothless sit down with their wings shielding us from the wind, and the rain that has just started.

It's a cold night, and its hard to sleep, and when I finally do sleep I am woken by nightmares.

I wake with a flinch, and then I feel Hiccups hands wrap around my shoulders.

"Astrid!" I don't answer, I am too confused and tired and scared to know what is going on. "Astrid! Are you alright?" when I bring myself to my senses, I nod. I am breathing heavily. Hiccup sighs. "What, what happened?" he says as he sits down. "I don't know" I reply. "It was, on Berk, and there was fire, and war and we had no dragons and, my, my…" I trail off. "Your what Astrid?!" he asks frantically. "My…my parents were there." He doesn't answer, he just slouches against the tree and looks at the ground in front of him. Stormfly starts to cower.

"No, no Stormfly! I never, you weren't even there!" I look up at a quivering, Stormfly. "I'm sorry, Stormfly, and I know you are to. But, just because you, and your kind, were the ones who…who...you know, it doesn't mean, I don't still love you! You're my dragon! I'm your rider! We can't ever not love each other Stormfly!"

She looks down at me, and stops shaking, she bends her head down, and I stroke her nose. I hear her, almost purr…

We seem to drift off to sleep quickly, no nightmares after that one, thank the Gods.

In the morning, Hiccup and I appear to wake up almost simultaneously. Just as I open my eyes, I see Hiccup sit up and stretch his neck.

"Morning milady." He says with a smile.

"Morning" I reply.

After we wake up enough to get moving, we start towards the Hooligan's 'camp' they will have set up for the night. I don't know exactly how long it will take Hiccup and I to get there, but, we have to hope we are at least on the right track.

It has brightened up a little, at least, it's not raining, still cloudy though. Just as we are walking down the path as normal, we both hear a low rumble, almost like, a whisper. As the whisper gets louder and louder, Hiccup tells me to get back, we both ease backwards, not making any sudden movements. Then, all of a sudden, the ground goes in on its self and a whispering death comes out of it. The sound of its teeth rotating is so loud and screechy, like a cats nails scraping metal. As it plunges through the ground, Hiccup and I are thrown backwards. Whispering deaths are rare. Too rare to be on this island by accident.

The whispering sound is much louder now. I just manage to sit up when the dragon spots me. I see its rotating rows of teeth, then I decide it's better to look away from it…

I slowly back, away. Staying near to the ground at all times. But I can't see Hiccup. At first, I find it hard to breathe, I can't control myself. I am panicking, fumbling around trying to find things that I know wont be there, trying to close my eyes and make all of this go away. I just… I cant…

Once I realise how stupid im being and compose myself to a certain extent, I try to look around the dragon, its eyes still trained on me. If only it were a sunny day. The whispering death would not be so keen to be out in the open.

For one moment, the dragon goes silent. I hear Hiccup call "Astrid? Are you alright?" I am breathing heavily. I swallow "yeah…"

The dragon is still just staring at me, with his bulging eyes. Out of nowhere I am - without warning - being charged at by the whispering death. I scramble a little, then I remember something from training when I was younger. 'Find the blind spot'.

I stop, quickly. So does the dragon. I am now underneath the hovering scales of its neck. I slowly step backwards more, and more. Until I see Hiccup when I turn around. He is frozen still, just staring at me as if telling me to move, now!

So I do, I run, as quietly as I can underneath the rest of the dragon but as I come to the end of its tail – also where Hiccup is standing – the dragon whips around, taking its tail with it and flinging Hiccup and I off of our feet. I let out a small yelp, unknowingly. My arm is throbbing so bad, I told Hiccup it was okay… I didn't want to worry him more than he is, but to be honest, its a lot worse than it was yesterday.

I don't have much time to examine the damage. Hiccup pulls me up by the hand and tells me "Astrid, run." I stare at him. "No! I won't leave you here to fight that thing! I won't!" he shakes his head. "I'll catch up." I look at him with disbelief, even without meaning to. I raise my eye brows at him, I have an idea. "Hiccup, eels?" he nods. "Go get some. I'll stay here and make sure it doesn't follow you." I nod, slowly. He gives me a small kiss on the cheek and shoo's me away, so I go to get the eels from the river. I hop onto Stormfly, and we leave.

As I come closer to the river, I approach it with caution, too many things happened here that I want to remember. My head starts to ache as I burry the memories, the thoughts, everything that ever happened here. I grab the longest stick I can find handy, and kneel down at the edge of the river. I can see the eels already, slithering around at nearby rock, not too deep. I poke the stick down into the water and the eels seem to be curios of it. When one wraps its self around the stick I quickly pull it up, and drop the eel on the ground behind me. I have to be more patient on the next one, but of course I get it.

With two eels, I head back to Hiccup.

Stormfly is not keen on the eels. "Please Stormfly, just, one ride with them. Its fine!" Stormfly backs away. "Urgh…Stormfly, if you…act like this for much longer, Hiccup and Toothless won't make it! Please?!"

Stormfly grunts and bows her head to let me on her back.

She is very shaky on the way back, but she makes it through. And plus imagine how much longer it would have taken on foot.

I run to Hiccup with the eels. "you got them!" he says. "well, I do try." I gloat a little. I pass him one of the eels and we lure the Whispering death back into the ground, leaving one eel at the huge hole in the earth, and keeping one with us. The dragons hate it, but we wont last long if any other dragons come at us.

As we start to walk again Hiccup breaks the silence with. "well done, Astrid" "for what?" I laugh a little, looks at him, and smile.

"you knew the Whispering death was afraid of eels, if you hadn't, we might not be alive." he nudges me with his elbow, i nudge back.

"I didn't know…I just guessed. And I'm sure you would have thought of something." I assure him.

We converse back and forth about the different dragons, quizzing each other on their traits, abilities and disadvantages.

When we have quizzed each other on every dragon we can think of, it goes quiet again.

"You said your arm was okay?" he looks at me, still keeping his head lowered to the ground slightly.

I bite my bottom lip. "you believed me" I look back at him wearing a sympathetic smile, I knows he hates it when I pretends im okay. But he knows I hate admitting im not.

"okay, well, next time…ill check for myself." he smiles at me a little bit. i smile back. "is your arm okay?" he says, mimicking his tone form earlier on. i just stare at the ground. "its okay, I guess" I say. Even though its not, not even a little bit okay.

"can I see?" he says. "just to make sure?" i sighs and hold out my left arm – the one nearest to him. We stop walking and he holds my hand with one of his, and my elbow with the other. "oh my gods…" he says, looking at the red, jagged curve, ending just above the back of my hand. i look at him. I can tell he can feel my arm shaking as he holds it. i look at his metal foot. "Hiccup, I cant help but notice…you have been limping the whole way from the river. You said your leg was okay?" he looks up at me with his green eyes. They shine in the sunset sky. "you believed me" he says mimicking me. I laughs. "Hiccup?" he looks back down at my arm, which is still in his hands. "mmhmm."

"are you…okay?"

"Astrid, I'm okay. Now, that I know you are safe, and every things going to be alright." I look at him. "well, Valdomear is probably still looking for us. Who knows what has happened if he has found the rest of the tribe?" he nods, lets go of my arm, puts his hand on one of my shoulders and says "well, we better get back then…"

I nod in agreement.


End file.
